Women's PerspectivesPaperback, 23 June 2010

The primary objective of this research was to understand what role women thought alcohol played in their partners' violence to them. It aimed to: 1) question whether women blamed alcohol for their partners' violence, 2) establish whether the women made allowances for their partners' violence because of their partners' drinking, 3) determine the extent to which the women believed alcohol played a key role in such violence, 4) explore any differences in the women's beliefs about alcohol's role in violence when it was directed at others, and when it was directed at them, 5) develop theory, grounded in the women's views, that offers an explanation for alcohol's role in the violence they experienced. In-depth, semi-structured, interviews were conducted with 20 women who suffered violence or abuse from their partners. Due to the subject of this research and the absence of women's views in research on this subject, a grounded theory approach was used, located within a feminist research framework. The study concluded that while the women accept that alcohol has disinhibiting effects, they do not blame alcohol for their partners' violence and abuse.